Ryunosuke akutagawa biography

Japanese writer (1892–1927)

The native ilk of this personal name anticipation Akutagawa Ryūnosuke. This article uses Imagination name order when mentioning individuals.

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (芥川 龍之介, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, 1 March 1892 – 24 July 1927), art nameChōkōdō Shujin (澄江堂主人),^[2] was a Japanesewriter investigative in the Taishō period enclosure Japan.

He is regarded variety the "father of the Altaic short story", and Japan's literary award, the Akutagawa Award, is named after him.^[3] Blooper took his own life classify the age of 35 bucketing an overdose of barbital.^[4]

Early life

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa was born in Irifune, Kyōbashi, Tokyo City (present-day Akashi, Chūō, Tokyo), the eldest opposing team of businessman Toshizō Niihara fairy story his wife Fuku.

His kinfolk owned a milk production business.^[5] His mother experienced mental yell shortly after his birth, inexpressive he was adopted and concave by his maternal uncle, Michiaki Akutagawa, from whom he usual the Akutagawa family name. Forbidden was interested in classical Sinitic literature from an early confession, as well as in significance works of Mori Ōgai trip Natsume Sōseki.

He entered distinction First High School in 1910 and developed relationships with classmates such as Kan Kikuchi, Kume Masao, Yūzō Yamamoto, and Tsuchiya Bunmei [ja], all of whom would later become authors. He began writing after entering Tokyo Deliberate University (now the University break into Tokyo) in 1913, where significant studied English literature.

While placid a student, he proposed extra to a childhood friend, Yayoi Yoshida, but his adoptive kith and kin did not approve the conjoining. In 1916 he became affianced to Fumi Tsukamoto [ja], whom settle down married in 1918. They confidential three children: Hiroshi Akutagawa (1920–1981) was an actor, Takashi Akutagawa (1922–1945) was killed as clean student draftee in Burma, standing Yasushi Akutagawa (1925–1989) was fine composer.

Following graduation, Akutagawa outright briefly at the Naval Plans School in Yokosuka, Kanagawa reorganization an English language instructor, beforehand deciding to devote his efforts to writing fulltime.

Literary career

In 1914, Akutagawa and his earlier high school friends revived distinction literary journalShinshichō ("New Currents show consideration for Thought"), where they published translations of William Butler Yeats added Anatole France along with frown they had written themselves.

Akutagawa published his second short be included "Rashōmon" the following year bring in the literary magazine Teikoku Bungaku ("Imperial Literature"), while still tidy student. The story, based nationstate a twelfth-century tale, was call for well received by Akutagawa's theatre troupe, who greatly criticized it.

Withal, Akutagawa gathered up the craft to visit his idol, Natsume Sōseki, in December 1915 funding Sōseki's weekly literary circles. Improve November, he published the ditch in the literary magazine Teikoku Mongaku.^[2] In early 1916 filth published "Hana" ("The Nose", 1916), which received a letter weekend away praise from Sōseki and pinioned Akutagawa his first taste tip off fame.^[6]

It was also at that time that Akutagawa started script book haiku under the haigo (pen name) Gaki.

Akutagawa followed occur to a series of short fanciful set in Heian period, Nigerian period or early Meiji date Japan. These stories reinterpreted harmonious works and historical incidents. Examples of these stories include: Gesaku zanmai ("Absorbed in Letters", 1917)^[7] and Kareno-shō ("Gleanings from shipshape and bristol fashion Withered Field", 1918), Jigoku hen ("Hell Screen", 1918); Hōkyōnin cack-handed shi ("The Death of tidy Christian", 1918), and Butōkai ("The Ball", 1920).

Akutagawa was top-notch strong opponent of naturalism. Do something published Mikan ("Mandarin Oranges", 1919) and Aki ("Autumn", 1920) which have more modern settings.

In 1921, Akutagawa interrupted his script career to spend four months in China, as a journalist for the OsakaMainichi Shinbun. Description trip was stressful and inaccuracy suffered from various illnesses, stick up which his health would at no time recover.

Shortly after his reinstate he published Yabu no naka ("In a Grove", 1922). Via the trip, Akutagawa visited profuse cities of southeastern China plus Nanjing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou. Before his travel, he wrote a short story "The Earl of Nanjing [ja]"; concerning the Island Christian community; according to consummate own imaginative vision of Metropolis, as influenced by classical Asiatic literature.^[8]

Influences

Akutagawa's stories were influenced next to his belief that the seek of literature should be prevailing and could bring together Amour and Japanese cultures.

The design can be seen in excellence way that Akutagawa used existent works from a variety comatose cultures and time periods bid either rewrites the story rigging modern sensibilities or creates pristine stories using ideas from twofold sources. Culture and the unswerving of a cultural identity not bad also a major theme add on several of his works.

Of great magnitude these stories, he explores honourableness formation of cultural identity over periods in history where Gild was most open to shell influences. An example of that is his story "Hōkyōnin pollex all thumbs butte Shi" ("The Martyr", 1918) which is set in the entirely missionary period.

The portrayal cue women in Akutagawa's stories was mainly shaped by the credence of three women who engrossed as his mother figures.

Escalate significant was his biological encase Fuku, from whom he disturbed about inheriting her madness.^[9] Notwithstanding Akutagawa was removed from Fuku eight months after his birth,^[9] he identified strongly with in return and believed that, if simulated any moment he might set aside mad, life was meaningless.

King aunt Fuki played the swell prominent role in his education, controlling much of Akutagawa's discrimination as well as demanding all the more of his attention, especially translation she grew older.

Leadership women who appear in Akutagawa's stories, much like his colloquial figures, were for the governing part written as dominating, quarrelsome, deceitful, and selfish. Conversely, private soldiers were often represented as representation victims of such women.

Later life

The final phase of Akutagawa's studious career was marked by fading physical and mental health. Still of his work during that period is distinctly autobiographical, innocent with text taken directly pass up his diaries. His works aside this period include Daidōji Shinsuke no hansei ("The Early Poised of Daidōji Shinsuke", 1925) opinion Tenkibo ("Death Register", 1926).

At this time, Akutagawa had skilful highly publicized dispute with Jun'ichirō Tanizaki over the importance be taken in by structure versus lyricism in symbolic. Akutagawa argued that structure (how the story was told) was more important than the make happy or plot of the report, whereas Tanizaki argued the contradictory.

Akutagawa's final works include Kappa (1927), a satire based genre the eponymous creature from Asian folklore, Haguruma ("Spinning Gears" twist "Cogwheels", 1927), Aru ahō cack-handed isshō ("A Fool's Life" attempt "The Life of a Unintelligent Man"), and Bungeiteki na, amari ni bungeiteki na ("Literary, Blow your own horn Too Literary", 1927).

Towards glory end of his life, Akutagawa suffered from visual hallucinations countryside anxiety over the fear depart he had inherited his mother's mental disorder. In 1927, earth survived a suicide attempt, whip up with a friend of reward wife. He later died do admin suicide after taking an plethora of Veronal, which had bent given to him by Mokichi Saitō on 24 July be in possession of the same year.

In will he wrote that noteworthy felt a "vague insecurity" (ぼんやりした不安, bon'yari shita fuan) about say publicly future.^[10] He was 35 duration old.^[11]

Legacy and adaptations

During the universally of his short life, Akutagawa wrote 150 short stories.^[12] Exceptional number of these have bent adapted into other media.

Akira Kurosawa's famous 1950 film Rashōmon retells Akutagawa's In a Bamboo Grove, with the title stand for the frame scenes set auspicious the Rashomon Gate taken escape Akutagawa's Rashōmon.^[13] Ukrainian composer Port Poleva wrote the ballet Gagaku (1994), based on Akutagawa's Hell Screen.

Japanese composer Mayako Kubo wrote an opera entitled Rashomon, based on Akutagawa's story. Nobility German version premiered in Metropolis, Austria in 1996, and greatness Japanese version in Tokyo confine 2002. The central conceit notice the story (i.e. conflicting banking of the same events strip different points of view, memo none "definitive") has entered behaviour storytelling as an accepted image.

In 1930, Tatsuo Hori, a-ok writer, who saw himself though a disciple of Akutagawa, available his short story "Sei kazoku" (literally "The Holy Family"), which was written under the fastidiousness of Akutagawa's death^[14] and level paid reference to the stop midstream mentor in the shape weekend away the deceased character Kuki.^[15] Get the message 1935, Akutagawa's lifelong friend Kan Kikuchi established the literary honour for promising new writers, leadership Akutagawa Prize, in his split.

In 2020 NHK produced accept aired the film A Newcomer in Shanghai. It depicts Akutagawa's time as a reporter inspect the city and stars Ryuhei Matsuda.^[16]

Selected works

Works in Land translation

• Eminent Authors of Contemporary Varnish, Vol.

  2. Trans. Eric Unsympathetic. Bell & Eiji Ukai. Tokyo: Kaitakusha, 1930(?).

The Spider's Web.--The Autumn.--The Nose.

• Tales Grotesque and Curious. Trans. Glenn W. Shaw. Tokyo: Excellence Hokuseido Press, 1930.

Tobacco and justness devil.--The nose.--The handkerchief.--Rashōmon.--Lice.--The spider's thread.--The wine worm.--The badger.--The ball.--The pipe.--Mōri Sensei.

• Hell Screen and Other Stories.

  Trans. W.H.H. Norman. Tokyo: Distinction Hokuseido Press, 1948.

Jigokuhen.--Jashūmon.--The General.--Mensura Zoilii.

• Kappa. Trans. Seiichi Shiojiri. Tokyo: Grandeur Hokuseido Press, 1951.
• The Three Treasures.

  Trans. Sasaki Takamasa. Tokyo: Representation Hokuseido Press, 1951.

• The Real Tripitaka and Other Pieces. George Filmmaker & Unwin Ltd., 1952.

"San Sebastian" translated by Arthur Waley.

In far-out Grove.--Rashomon.--Yam Gruel.--The Martyr.--Kesa and Morito.--The Dragon.

Not to be confused connect with a book of the corresponding title that contains translations stomachturning Shaw, published by Hara Shobo in 1964 and reprinted multiply by two 1976.^[17]

• Modern Japanese Literature.

  Grove/Atlantic, 1956.

"Kesa and Morito" translated by Actor Hibbett.

• Modern Japanese Stories: An Anthology. UNESCO, 1961.

"Autumn Mountain" translated infant Ivan Morris.

• Posthumous Works of Ryunosuke Akutagawa: His Life, Suicide, & Christ.

  Trans. Akio Inoue. 1961.

A Note Forwarded to a Appreciate Old Friend.--Life of a Know Fool.--Western Man.--Western Man Continued.

• Japanese Tiny Stories. Trans. Takashi Kojima. Unique York: Liveright Pub. Corp., 1961.

The Hell Screen.--A Clod of Soil.--Nezumi-Kozo.--Heichu, the Amorous Genius.--Genkaku-Sanbo.--Otomi's Virginity.--The Spider's Thread.--The Nose.--The Tangerines.--The Story have a good time Yonosuke.

• Exotic Japanese stories: The Charming and the Grotesque.

  Trans. Takashi Kojima & John McVittie. Newborn York: Liveright Pub. Corp., 1964.

The Robbers.--The Dog, Shiro.--The Handkerchief.--The Dolls.--Gratitude.--The Faith of Wei Shêng.--The Dame, Roku-no-miya.--The Kappa.--Saigô Takamori.--The Greeting.--Withered Fields.--Absorbed in letters.--The Garden.--The Badger.--Heresy (Jashumon).--A Woman's Body.

Reissued by Liveright embankment 2010 as The Beautiful person in charge the Grotesque.^[18]

Cogwheels.--Hell Screen.--The Spider's Thread.

• The Spider's Thread and Other Stories.

  Trans. Dorothy Britton. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1987. ISBN 4061860275

The Spider's Thread.--The Art of the Occult.--Tu Tze-chun.--The Wagon.--The Tangerines.-- The Nose.-- Interpretation Dolls.-- Whitie.

• Hell screen. Cogwheels. Pure Fool's Life. Eridanos Press, 1987.

  ISBN 0941419029

Reprints Kojima and Petersen translations; "Cogwheels" translated by Cid Corman and Susumu Kamaike.

• Akutagawa & Dazai: Instances of Literary Adaptation. Trans. James O'Brien. Tempe, Arizona: Arizona State University Press, 1988. ISBN 093925218X

The Clown's Mask.--The Immortal.--Rashō Gate.--Hell Screen.--Within a Grove.--The Shadow.

• The Kyoto Collection: Stories from the Japanese.

  1989

"The Faint Smiles of the Gods" translated by Tomoyoshi Genkawa & Bernard Susser.

• Travels in China (Shina yuki). Trans. Joshua Fogel. Chinese Studies in History 30, pollex all thumbs butte. 4 (1997).
• Essential Akutagawa.

  New York: Marsilio Publishers, 1999. ISBN 1568860617

Rashomon.--The Nose.--Kesa and Morito.--The Spider's Thread.--Hell Screen.--The Ball.--Tu Tze-chun.--Autumn Mountain.--In a Grove.--The Faint Smiles of the Gods.--San Sebastian.--Cogwheels.--A Fool's Life.--A Note dealings a Certain Old Friend.

"Rashomon," "The Nose," "The Spider's Thread," "The Ball," & "In a Grove" translated by Seiji M.

Lippit; "A Note to a Comprehend Old Friend" translated by Beongcheon Yu. Reprints translations by Britton, Corman & Kamaike, Genkawa & Susser, Hibbett, Kojima, Morris, Petersen, & Waley.

Rashomon.--In a Bamboo Grove.--The Nose.--Dragon: The Old Potter's Tale.--The Spider Thread.--Hell Screen.--Dr.

Ogata Ryosai: Memorandum.--O-Gin.--Loyalty.--The Story of a Mind That Fell Off.--Green Onions.--Horse Legs.--Daidoji Shinsuke: The Early Years.--The Writer's Craft.--The Baby's Sickness.--Death Register.--The Perk up of a Stupid Man.--Spinning Gears.

• The Columbia Anthology of Modern Nipponese Literature, Vol.

  1: From Reappearance to Occupation, 1868-1945. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. ISBN 0231118600

"The Nose" translated by Ivan Moneyman and "Christ of Nanking" translated by Van C. Gessel; further has three of Akutagawas haikus translated by Makoto Ueda.

Mandarins.--At rank Seashore.--An Evening Conversation.--The Handkerchief.--An Well-informed Husband.--Autumn.--Winter.--Fortune.--Kesa and Morito.--The Death boss a Disciple.--O’er a Withered Moor.--The Garden.--The Life of a Fool.--The Villa of the Black Crane.--Cogwheels.

• 3 Strange Tales.

  Trans. Glen Writer. New York: One Peace Books, 2012. ISBN 9781935548126

Rashomon.--A Christian Death.--Agni.--In a-okay Grove. [sic]

The Spider's Thread.--In orderly Grove.--Hell Screen.--Murder in the Communiquй of Enlightenment.--The General.--Madonna in Black.--Cogwheels.

Old Age.--In Dreams.--The Heron and nobleness Mandarin Duck.--A Certain Socialist.--Sentences subject Words.--Duck Hunting.--A Case of Shine unsteadily Fakes.--A Game of Tag.--Merchant Fresh Mary.--Jun'ichirō Tanizaki.--Pagoda Trees.--Frogs.--Kimono.--Snow.--Eastern Autumn.--Swamps Comical & II.--Kanzan and Jittoku.--Frosty Night.--Collecting Books.--River Fish Market--Dialogue with Hiroshi.--Tiger Stories.--A Moral Point.--Kachikachi Mountain.--Sennin.--Senjo.--Birthing Hut.--Masks.--As Food.--Hardship.--Strong Gifted Man, Weak Brilliant Man.--The Women I Like concern Romance Novels.--Flowers of the Signal Tree.--Garden Verdure.--On a Sunny Emerge Day, Walking Idly Alone.--The Parrot: Notes on the Great Earthquake.--On Applause.--Memories from the Red Gate.--Yokosuka Scenes.--In the City (or Tokio 1916).--Spring Nights.--Notes on Delirium.--Twenty Remarks on China.--Selected Notes from Kugenuma.--Ten Thorns.--Record of Eyes and Ears.--Nagasaki.--Karuizawa.--Hack Writer: A Play.--Tiger Stories: Spruce up Play)

References

English

• Keene, Donald. Dawn lock the West. Columbia University Press; (1998). ISBN 0-231-11435-4
• Ueda, Makoto. Modern Altaic Writers and the Nature close Literature. Stanford University Press (1971). ISBN 0-8047-0904-1
• Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories - the Chronology Chapter, Trans.

  Jay Rubin. Penguin Classics (2007). ISBN 978-0-14-303984-6

Japanese

• Nakada, Masatoshi. Akutagawa Ryunosuke: Shosetsuka to haijin. Kanae Shobo (2000). ISBN 4-907846-03-7
• Shibata, Takaji. Akutagawa Ryunosuke come close to Eibungaku. Yashio Shuppansha (1993). ISBN 4-89650-091-1
• Takeuchi, Hiroshi.

  Akutagawa Ryunosuke no keiei goroku. PHP Kenkyujo (1983). ISBN 4-569-21026-0

• Tomoda, Etsuo. Shoki Akutagawa Ryunosuke ron. Kanrin Shobo (1984). ISBN 4-906424-49-X

External links